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SUPPORTING SERVICES
Equipped for success
Project Performance International offers a range of supporting services to assist you in reaching your business goals
Systems Engineering Coaching
One-on-One Online Systems Engineering Coaching for Key Staff
With many key professionals now working from home under less than ideal conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the time is right to make a necessity into a virtue. Invest in your key people with a day’s or a week’s coaching. Send us a profile of the person, a description of the person’s role and the coaching outcomes you are seeking, and we will come back with a proposal for intensive, outcome-focussed coaching to bridge the gap. Note that we are used to non-disclosure agreements and treat them very seriously.
Our proposal will describe our recommended approach and the credentials of the coach.
These are not easy times, but when one door closes, another door may well open.
PPI can help you in all facets of systems engineering.
Benefit from coaching by an expert – contact Robert Halligan using the form to discuss.
TRAINING AND CONSULTING TEAM
Robert Halligan
Paul Davies
Michael Gainford
Randall Iliff
Alywn Smit
John Fitch
Clive Tudge
PPI Academy
The Academy provides a program that is structured around the delivery of a set of existing PPI courses and the delivery of on-site consultation in the application of the SE approach.
INTRODUCTION
PPI has been delivering systems engineering (SE) related training for over 25 years. We have become increasingly aware of the need for hands-on application of the tools and techniques that we teach. Beyond initial training, systems engineering needs to be internalized and to become the individual’s preferred method of dealing with the development of complex systems. That objective is notwithstanding the very workshop-oriented style of delivery of the PPI courses.
It was this awareness that led to the creation of our Engineering Academy offering. The Academy provides a program that is structured around the delivery of a set of existing PPI courses and the delivery of on-site consultation in the application of the SE approach. The consultation is to use a project that is particularly related to the business of the company, as a vehicle to apply and demonstrate the tools and techniques taught in the classroom. The program is scheduled over a period of one year, consisting of a total of up to 10 weeks of activity within which both on-site training and consultation are conducted. Participants spend another 10 weeks in total on Academy learning activities, necessitating about half of their time for a year to complete this learning program.
All of PPI’s systems engineering-related training is oriented towards the achievement of excellence in engineering and engineering management, the criterion for excellence being the maximization of their contribution to the commercial and other objectives of your organization.
The means of achieving this objective is a program of learning focussed on bringing about, in each participant, the knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) that are best matched to the objective. We believe that this simple but powerful model will maximize the benefit to your organization when compared with other systems engineering competency frameworks that are also available.
THE OFFERING
Provided by PPI:
- Facilitator on-site for 10 weeks – part training/part mentoring
- Formal training:
- Systems Engineering Management
- Systems Engineering
- Architectural Design
- Requirements Analysis and Specification Writing
- Model Based Systems Engineering with CORE™
- INCOSE Systems Engineering Certification Exam Preparation Training
- Access to the facilitator by phone/Skype/Zoom etc. outside of the 10 weeks on-site
Provided by your organization:
- Sponsored time of the participants for two weeks per month over ten months
- A funded, mutually agreed project that the participants can undertake over the course of a year – preferably non-revenue earning:
- A project aligned with what the company does.
- The project must be achievable with a 50% time commitment per participant.
- The project must be multidisciplinary.
- Participants will specify, design, build, test and demonstrate.
- The deliverable of the project should therefore be something that can be demonstrated at the end of the program
- Organization-specific aspects are to influence the project, e.g. the company’s tools of choice, or priorities in skills development
- Details of the project and desired project outcomes and quality criteria are to be developed jointly
- Engineering application domain mentor(s)
- Funding (where necessary) for participants to take the INCOSE ASEP/CSEP Knowledge Exam.
THE PROGRAM OF WORK
The details of the program of work are developed between your organization and PPI. Our intention is that the program include all needed training, as well as the application of the SE approach in the planning and execution of the selected project, with a strong emphasis on mentoring in relation to the project.
BENEFITS
The Academy program will produce a cadre of engineers, managers and leaders who can contribute in a substantial way to the future successes of your organization. Their contribution will be both direct through performance in their primary roles, and indirect by way of the positive influence that they will exert on the knowledge, skills and attitudes of other members of your team.
To request a comprehensive proposal for this offer, please email us.
SE Guru Service
Ad hoc systems engineering support to suit your business.
Clients may prepay for ad hoc systems engineering support by phone, email, Zoom, Skype, WeChat, on any aspect of systems engineering.
Support may be pre-purchased in blocks of 10, 20 and 50 hours. Minimum charge time is 0.5 hour.
No satisfaction, no charge!
| 10 hours | USD 2,710 |
| 20 hours | USD 5,143 |
| 50 hours | USD 12,635 |
| 100 hours | USD 24,752 |
| 200 hours | USD 48,203 |
Requirements Guru Service
Ad hoc Requirements Engineering (RE) support for your business.
Clients may prepay for ad hoc Requirements Engineering (RE) support by phone, email, Zoom, Skype, WeChat, on any aspect of requirements engineering.
Support may be pre-purchased in blocks of 10, 20 and 50 hours. Minimum charge time is 0.5 hour.
No satisfaction, no charge!
| 10 hours | USD 2,710 |
| 20 hours | USD 5,143 |
| 50 hours | USD 12,635 |
| 100 hours | USD 24,752 |
| 200 hours | USD 48,203 |
Requirements Quality Measurement
Requirements are the single biggest cause of project problems. Have yours assessed and reported upon before they become a problem.
FIXED-FEE REQUIREMENTS QUALITY MEASUREMENT (RQM) SERVICE
Why would we want to measure requirements quality?
- the most basic reason: do we have a requirements problem, and if so, how big a problem do we have, i.e., as an input to estimating the amount of work in performing a requirements analysis to transform “not good enough” to “good enough”?
- we are managers and have staff developing a requirements specification or doing a requirements analysis. Are they working effectively?
- we set a standard for our requirements specifications in terms of the value of a requirements quality metric, or more probably four values for different circumstances:
- original novel development in demanding circumstances
- original novel development in non-demanding circumstances
- very routine development
- non-developmental acquisition
- we set a standard for our requirements specifications for entry into a System Requirements Review or Software Requirements Review.
Of all the metrics in use in engineering, a requirements quality metric can be one of the most powerful, addressing, as it does, historically the single biggest problem in engineering: developing the wrong thing. Setting an objective standard for requirements does not guarantee problem-free requirements, but it can greatly reduce the level of risk
PPI is pleased to offer to our clients worldwide a service to assess and report the quality of the requirements for a client-nominated system or product using formal Requirements Quality Measurement (RQM).
Assessment and Reporting of Requirements Quality
PPI will measure the Requirements Quality and provide to you by email a report containing:
- a statement of the requirements quality values measured by PPI on requirements relating to a client system or product, the requirements having been provided by the client to PPI. The requirements quality will be expressed using PPI’s recommended Requirements Quality Metric. Two values are reported, viz. the quality of the requirements that are there, and the quality adjusted to allow for the number of requirements estimated to be needed, but missing
- an assessment of the level of risk related to defects in the requirements, based on the measured values and the circumstances of use of the requirements, as advised to PPI by the client
- an overview of any systemic defects in the requirements
- an Excel spreadsheet containing all data forming a part of the measurement and reporting.
What input is needed from the client?
You provide to us, typically by email:
- the requirements specification for the system or product, in English, including, if possible, any documents invoked by reference in requirements as being fully or partly applicable
- an overview of intended use of the item that is subject to the requirements specification, in terms of users, uses, how it is to be used, and the external conditions during use. An overview of a third to one page of information is envisioned
- a completed short questionnaire of twelve questions addressing the intended use of the requirements specification, including whether contracts are involved, and if so, the form of contract (e.g. competitive fixed-price bidding/tendering and subsequent contract, or whatever alternative form) and other information. If development is involved, the context of development. The time to complete this questionnaire is estimated to be about 10 minutes
- response by email to any questions raised by PPI in performing the requirements quality assessment, and potentially, one or two brief phone conversations.
The timing of performance of this service can be negotiated depending on the needs of the client and the availability of PPI consultants. Typical time from tasking to delivery of the report is a few days. All information exchanged between the client and PPI is, of course, confidential, and can be subject to a formal Non-Disclosure Agreement if desired.
Click here for Robert Halligan’s ‘Requirements Quality Metrics Paper with Addendum’ paper.
Schedule of fees:
Payment terms – 30 days for approved clients
This could be one of the highest Return on Investment decisions available to your enterprise.
For more information please contact Randall Iliff: RIliff@ppi-int.com
Project Decision Jump-Start Services
Visualize your stakeholders’ decisions and use them to validate the requirements for your project.
Clarify the scope of your design responsibilities and create a proactive plan for design decision-making.
Why would we want to take advantage of PPI’s Project Decision Jump-Starts?
Your stakeholders, both external customers and internal partners, have made numerous decisions that bound the scope for your project. But those decisions are not explicitly stated, explained, or traced to the initial set of project requirements. What do you do to ensure their decisions and the originating requirements are aligned?
- Choose the Requirements Validation (RV) Jump-Start Service option.
You have a solid set of requirements that have been validated with your customers – how do you plan the solution design effort for maximum speed, decision quality, and stakeholder value delivery?
- Choose the Project Decision Planning (PDP) Jump-Start Service option.
Even better, bundle the two options for maximum positive impact on your requirements analysis and solution design.
Founded on PPI’s unique capabilities
Both the RV and PDP services are built around PPI’s unique capability to explicitly model the decisions implied by stakeholder source documents. We map these sources to a set of proven decision patterns for enterprise strategy, product/system design, process capability design and/or service design. After your stakeholder decisions are made visible, they can be validated and used as the source of derived requirements which may or may not align with the stakeholder needs and requirements that you received. This approach is a powerful generator of highly focused requirement issues that guide further requirements analysis and validation efforts. The same decision model makes visible the hand-off of design responsibility from the stakeholders to your team, the “givens” vs. the “To-be-decideds”. The resulting project Decision Breakdown Structure (DBS) clarifies the design decisions that are in-scope for your project, creates a Decision Analysis (Trade Study) Plan and enables early resolution of alignment issues between project scope, schedule, and budget baselines.
PPI Tasks Common to Both Services
In both the RV and PDP Service, PPI will:
- Provide you with a suggested set of source documents that provide the context for the current project.
- Set up a repository for the source documents and the project decision model. The repository may be Excel or an extension to Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool.
- Import stakeholder source documents into the repository to enable precise traceability.
- Populate the repository with the decision patterns that are relevant to your project type and scope.
- Map source data elements to the decisions in our patterns, i.e., reverse engineer the decisions implied in these documents.
- Create an explicit trace from source data to each decision instance from the pattern.
- Meet virtually with stakeholders in a Decision Blitz session to refine and validate the decision model.
- Confirm decisions that have been “closed” by the stakeholders by capturing the stakeholders’ consensus definition of the “committed” alternative.
- At the end of the project, deliver to you the fully-populated decision repository in the format chosen, e.g., Excel or the selected MBSE tool. This task includes a half-day of data migration assistance and training in the use of the repository/database features that are unique to the decision jump-start service.
Requirements Validation (RV) Service Tasks
Specific to the RV Service, PPI will:
- Derive candidate requirements from the definition of each committed alternative (in each “closed” decision) by considering the consequences of the alternative’s structure, behavior, footprint, interfaces, and life cycle.
- Capture requirement issues for resolution with stakeholders. These may be candidate derived requirements that conflict with the originating requirements that you received or potentially missing requirements that may be added to the project requirements baseline after additional analysis and stakeholder concurrence.
Project Decision Planning (PDP) Service Tasks
Specific to the PDP Service, PPI will:
- Work with your team to identify and prioritize the open decisions to be made during the design phase of your project.
- Develop a data gathering and analysis plan for the high priority open decisions. Compile this effort into a project Decision Analysis Plan (aka Trade Study Plan).
- Align the Decision Analysis Plan with the current Project Work Breakdown Structure (PWBS) and master schedule. Capture project scope issues for resolution with your stakeholders.
Your role as a Customer
During the Project Decision Jump-Start Service engagement, you will:
- Provide PPI with access to stakeholder documentation as requested.
- Coordinate with stakeholders for their timely participation in the virtual Decision Blitz session.
- Participate in all direct interactions with stakeholders in resolution of open issues that have been identified.
The timing of performance of this service can be negotiated depending on the needs of the client and the availability of PPI consultants. Typical time from tasking to completion is two to four weeks. All information exchanged between the client and PPI is, of course, confidential, and can be subject to a formal Non-Disclosure Agreement if desired.
See background articles on the fundamental concepts behind these services in PPI SyEN’s monthly newsjournal:
- Introduction to Decision Patterns – SyEN December 2021 Edition
- Decision Patterns – So What? – SyEN April 2022 Edition
- Reverse Engineering Stakeholder Decisions from Their Requirements – SyEN June 2022 Edition
Learn More
To learn more about PPI’s Decision Pattern services and how they might apply to your business or project, inquire below:
Let's Talk
Discuss your needs with us.
Ready to dive in?
For a custom proposal on how PPI’s Decision Pattern services might jump-start your business or project, please complete a brief survey:
Decision Pattern Services – Project Scoping Survey
Please describe your project (or strategic initiative) by answering the following questions:
Decision Pattern Engagements
Have a question?
Let us know and we will be in touch.
